USNI News Video: What is Aegis Ashore?
Sam LaGrone – July 1, 2016 – USNIIn May, the U.S. Navy and the Missile Defense Agency activated a maritime radar about 200 miles away from any saltwater.

The Lockheed Martin SPY-1D radar is installed in Deveselu, Romania and is the heart of the Aegis Ashore missile defense system built on systems found on the Navy’s guided missile cruisers and destroyers.

“To put it simply, our new missile defense architecture in Europe will provide stronger, smarter, and swifter defenses of American forces and America’s Allies. It is more comprehensive than the previous program; it deploys capabilities that are proven and cost-effective; and it sustains and builds upon our commitment to protect the U.S. homeland against long-range ballistic missile threats; and it ensures and enhances the protection of all our NATO Allies,” President Obama said in 2009.

Missile Defense Agency officials say that developing the Aegis Ashore program would not incur high risk, the Government Accountability Office contends “a certain degree of uncertainty remains,” according to a new GAO report. The Dec. 21 GAO report, a series of briefing slides, outlines “acquisition management for the European Phased Adaptive Approach” and “near-term development risks.” Aegis Ashore is the land-based component of the administration’s proposed “phased adaptive approach” to defending US forces in Europe from ballistic missile attack. The briefing slides include several pages on Aegis Ashore, and additional slides on the planned Standard Missile 3 Block 1B interceptor, the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, and other related topics. MDA says developing Aegis Ashore “is not a high risk since it’s based on the existing Aegis [Ballistic Missile Defense] system,” the report states, adding that the 3.6.1 version of Aegis BMD “is currently in service on BMD-capable cruisers and destroyers.” However, “while Aegis BMD has demonstrated performance at sea, a series of changes are required to modify it for use on land with Aegis Ashore,” says GAO. Changing existing Aegis BMD technologies that would be used for Aegis Ashore “may reduce their maturity in the context of the new Aegis Ashore program, and new features will require testing and assessment to demonstrate their performance,” the report adds, noting that MDA plans to conduct ground and flight tests of the system before it is deployed. Additionally, “there are dependencies on next-generation versions of Aegis systems that are still in development,” according to GAO. Developing Aegis Ashore includes changes to the Aegis ship’s deckhouse and software operating system configurations, the report states, adding that of the 32 components of the integrated Aegis Combat System architecture, “only 11 of these will be reused for Aegis Ashore; the remaining 21 will need to be suppressed or otherwise disabled.”